The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

For everyone in the Imperial Guard 1st Brigade's direct air squadron, today was supposed to be just another ordinary day. According to the plan devised by the brigade's general staff, to familiarize themselves with the environment, they were to conduct their first live-fire training exercise along the southeastern coast of Timor Island after the main force of the 1st Brigade had moved there.

Of course, since the brigade command couldn't find any real target ships, this training simply involved designating an unfortunate coral reef exposed above the water as the "enemy ship" and then unleashing torpedoes, bombs, and machine gun ammunition on it. The main purpose was to ensure the pilots maintained their skill level and incidentally expend some ammunition; the difficulty wasn't particularly high.

However, due to a series of unforeseen accidents and coincidences, the coral reef, and the seabirds, oysters, barnacles, and anemones living on it, suddenly had a stroke of good fortune: halfway through the training, the brigade command's reconnaissance aircraft leading the air squadron unexpectedly spotted two unidentified vessels. Thus, a catastrophic disaster that should have befallen them was averted.

Because, according to the Emperor's secret decree, the excavation and exploration of the "forbidden zone" in Timor, led by Dr. Iskander Lomonosov, was extremely important and could not be interfered with by any unexpected factors. Therefore, the brigade command had already ordered that any suspicious vessel that could not prove its identity, once it approached within 10 nautical miles of the island's coast and warnings were ignored, could be immediately regarded as an enemy and sunk.

So, after the reconnaissance aircraft's radio operator issued two consecutive warnings according to procedure, but received no response, the squadron leader immediately issued the attack order according to the pre-arranged plan. Somewhat strangely, when the squadron leader's radio operator tried to report the situation to the brigade command afterward, he unexpectedly discovered that the radio communication seemed to be malfunctioning.

Of course, this situation did not alarm anyone—after all, in this era, radio technology, which had just been reinvented by archaeologists and was still in a relatively primitive state, was inherently problematic. As for concepts like electronic jamming and electronic camouflage, very few people even knew about them.

Therefore, the unease caused by the radio communication outage lasted only a few seconds, replaced by the excitement of finally being able to engage in combat—although conflicts frequently arose between the various states and autonomous cities within the Empire, and bandits, pirates, and armed smugglers often disrupted the peace of the border regions, for the Imperial Guard's First Brigade, which was stationed year-round in the capital, the world had been peaceful for far too long. Despite possessing fairly good equipment and training conditions, this was, at this moment, their first attack on a real target.

Of course, what happened next was quite different from what they had imagined—unlike the reefs and abandoned ships they had previously used as targets, these two seemingly dilapidated and shabby motorboats also opened fire. Although their machine gun fire was scattered and ineffective even in outlining the aircraft, a strange sniper managed to hit the pilots of both planes in succession!

This unexpected loss caused genuine panic among the squadron members. They were forced to hastily drop the torpedoes and halt their dangerous low-altitude straight flight. However, even then, everyone remained convinced that with the aerial bombs carried by the seaplane bomber squadron, sending the two small boats, along with the troublesome sniper aboard, to the bottom of the sea would not be difficult.

Until two other things happen.

The first incident was a purely tragic accident—the number two bomber in the seaplane squadron made a bombing error, accidentally dropping a bomb on the top of the mast. The overly sensitive fuse, after detonation, not only shot down the bomber but also caused it to collide with another torpedo bomber that was suppressing the target deck with machine guns. The second incident was a genuine tragedy: while everyone was still in shock from the accident, the pilot of the number three bomber, who was preparing to drop bombs, suddenly noticed that six people on the three ships had suddenly stood up from their previous hiding places.

These were six figures dressed in brightly colored costumes, resembling "team heroes" from ancient civilizations. Upon standing, they immediately raised their arms—in late 20th-century tokusatsu films, this gesture usually signified summoning some powerful being or an impending fusion…

But now, in the 36th century, every professional soldier of normal intelligence knows very well what it means for someone dressed in this kind of attire to make this gesture.

"Military Ranger! It's a Military Ranger! Aa ...

In his final moments, he vaguely sensed that the bombardier behind him, in a moment of panic, instinctively pulled the bomb release cord, releasing the bombs from the underwing pylons. However, he couldn't see where the munitions went. Because less than a hundred milliseconds later, the material that made up most of his body had turned to ashes.

Of course, he wasn't the only one to encounter such a terrible situation—in less than two seconds, six of the remaining seven aircraft in the squadron were struck with incredibly precise and fatal blows that only armored warriors could deliver.

Except for the pilot of bomber squadron number 5, whose throat was pierced by a poisoned crossbow bolt and who at least managed to leave with a whole body, the pilots of the other five aircraft were accurately hit by ion beams or high-energy laser beams and were wiped out from the world forever without even understanding what happened.

Yes, literally evaporate.

"Your Highness Anjie, it's up to you now!" Huang Yan said to Anjie in the communication channel the instant the first round of attacks ended.

"I'll handle it."

Having just destroyed an aircraft with the tracking ion cannon on her right shoulder, Ange immediately activated the anti-gravity wings behind her and leaped from the "Fearless". At this moment, her six-barreled machine gun was not equipped. The "Golden Soup" ion shoulder cannon, after reaching full output, required at least ten seconds of cooling and reloading time. Although she still had a few small loitering munitions on her person, their horsepower was limited, and they could not catch up with the last aircraft that had already dropped its bombs and was accelerating away.

However, this was not a problem for Anjie: when calculating the firing plan, Huang Yan had already taken into account her anti-gravity wings and thoughtfully arranged two targets for her.

Thanks to the precise calculations made earlier, - focusing on providing the most comfortable reading experience. Huang Yan judged that as long as An Jie used the anti-gravity wings to dash and chase for as long as possible in the air for five seconds, she could ensure that the last seaplane bomber could not escape outside the firing zone before the next plasma shoulder cannon firing preparation was completed.

At that time, shooting down that plane from behind would be as easy for Ange as shooting down a sluggish duck in a swamp.

Up until three seconds after Ange's feet left the deck, the entire plan had proceeded smoothly—she had successfully reached the air and begun accelerating while simultaneously putting the plasma shoulder cannon into its energy storage phase. However, in the fourth second, an unexpected incident occurred.

A huge jet of water suddenly surged up from the side and back, hitting Anjie hard.

The jet of water was created by two bombs dropped by aircraft number three seconds earlier. In the final moments, the bombardier of this seaplane, acting purely on instinct, forcefully pulled off the bomb release cord he was already holding. Although this action could not save him and the aircraft from their inevitable demise, the bombs he dropped triggered a series of chain reactions seconds later.

Although the scorching water jet from the explosion, mixed with shrapnel, couldn't directly harm Ange, who was completely encased in the "golden soup," its impact still caused her to briefly lose her balance while aiming at the target. The ion beam, which was supposed to be accurately hitting its target with the aid of the fire control system, was accidentally fired prematurely. While not completely missing the target, the ion beam merely grazed the target's tail and flew past the cockpit, burning the bomber pilot's shoulder and igniting his leather flight jacket.

"Eek—" The pilot, his body ablaze, screamed in agony, gripping the control stick tightly with his right hand to prevent the plane from going out of control and crashing, while frantically trying to extinguish the flames on his jacket with his other hand. Due to the pain and the excessive force he exerted, the seaplane was pulled into a figure-eight arc and veered off course, heading straight for Ange.

Under normal circumstances, Anjie should have been able to completely avoid the impact—but unfortunately, the water jet from the explosion had surrounded her with splashes and steam, making it impossible for her to see clearly. Although her motion sensor detected the anomaly via WeChat radar moments later, in that critical moment, even a single breath could make a decisive difference.

"Ugh—"

Just as Ange was preparing to descend to avoid the impact, the massive biplane seaplane bomber crashed into her—more precisely, it was the float under the right wing of the aircraft that struck her. Although the intelligent combat armor once again proved its worth, successfully absorbing a large amount of the impact and preventing Ange from suffering internal organ rupture from the collision, she was still knocked unconscious on the spot and became trapped on the float, which was damaged and deformed from the impact.

"Oh no!" Fish heard Huang Yan exclaim in a low voice—this was the first time the ancient artificial intelligence attached to the intelligent combat armor had shown such surprise. Clearly, the extremely low-probability event that had just occurred was something even she hadn't been able to calculate in advance, let alone prepare a contingency plan as usual.

Of course, even Huang Yan wouldn't make a special plan for something like this, so Fish certainly couldn't have prepared in advance. However, after seeing his fiancée being "taken away" in front of him like this, Fish, who was often criticized by others for being indecisive, still instinctively made the kind of reaction a normal man would have at this moment.

He leaped decisively from the side of the "Fearless" in a "leap of faith"... and was quite lucky to catch the tail of a seaplane that had just collided with Ange and was trying to pull up again.

"Oh, Mr. Fish!"

"Your Highness Fish, what's wrong—"

"I'm fine!" Fish replied, gripping the tail of the plane tightly, after hearing his companions' exclamations over the comms. "You guys proceed with the landing as planned. I'll come and meet up with you after I've dealt with this little trouble."

"Damn it, who are you?!" Just as Fish said this, the radio operator and self-defense gunner in the radio operator's seat at the back of the seaplane shouted at him. Clearly, the numerous incidents that had occurred in the past few seconds had completely terrified him. Therefore, upon discovering that someone had actually jumped onto his plane, his "short-circuited" brain did not immediately choose the option of "firing."

"Sorry, I don't have time to chat with you right now." Fish gripped the horizontal stabilizer tightly with one hand, while the gauntlet on his other hand transformed into a small round shield. Just as the transformation ended, the self-defense machine gunner reacted, aimed the long, nail-like sight of the aircraft machine gun at Fish, and pulled the trigger hard.

Within seconds, he had emptied an entire 50-round drum magazine. Although the small-caliber machine gun bullets couldn't penetrate the small shield Fish was holding up, the impact still nearly caused Fish to lose his grip on the tail of the plane.

Fortunately, unlike many old-school shooters that like to set fixed machine guns to have unlimited ammo, that aircraft machine gun had a very limited ammo capacity. After the entire drum magazine was emptied, the defensive machine gunner instinctively tried to change it, but after seeing Fish crawling towards him while clinging to the tail fin, he instead drew a small revolver for self-defense from his holster.

Unfortunately, the .25 caliber bullets fired by this thing were simply no match for the defenses of the smart combat armor. Fish didn't even need to deliberately defend against or avoid the enemy's attacks; he simply climbed to the cockpit, grabbed the other person's hand holding the gun, and twisted the wrist 180 degrees.

"Wow!"

"Get down."

After grabbing the man by the collar, Fish yanked him out of the cockpit and tossed him out like trash. At that moment, the unfortunate pilot finally extinguished the flames burning on his shoulder and, along with the bombardier, witnessed this astonishing scene.

"Holy crap..."

"You two have two choices now," Fish said to the two men after climbing into the self-defense machine gunner's cockpit. "First..."

"We...we understand!" Before he could even state the specific options, the two men had already quickly put on their parachutes and jumped out of the plane one after the other.